Abstracts
Abstract
Late medieval artes moriendi are an example of the opposition between spiritual and bodily senses, as is otherwise known in mystical texts. The artes moriendi counselled believers in their hour of death, when their physical senses were fading away. As this article will argue, this handicap could turn into an advantage when it led to a focus on the spiritual senses. Seeing with the inner eye would bring believers onto the path to God and, thus, help them to overcome temporal death through eternal life. Even if the genre of ars moriendi came to an end with the Reformation in Protestant countries, the idea of spiritual senses overcoming death survived.
Keywords:
- Artes moriendi,
- Death,
- Senses,
- Jean Gerson,
- Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg,
- Julian of Norwich,
- Johann von Staupitz,
- Martin Luther,
- Reformation
Résumé
Les artes moriendi du Moyen Âge tardif illustrent l’opposition entre les sens spirituels et corporels, telle qu’on la retrouve par ailleurs dans les textes mystiques. Les artes moriendi conseillaient les croyants à l’approche de la mort, lorsque leurs sens physiques faiblissaient. Comme le soutient le présent article, ce déficit pouvait se transformer en avantage s’il recentrait l’attention sur les sens spirituels. Le regard intérieur devait mettre les croyants sur le chemin de Dieu et les aider ainsi à surmonter la mort temporelle par la vie éternelle. Même si le genre de l’ars moriendi a pris fin avec la Réforme dans les pays protestants, l’idée des sens spirituels surmontant la mort a perduré.
Mots-clés :
- Artes moriendi,
- Mort,
- Sens,
- Jean Gerson,
- Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg,
- Julian of Norwich,
- Johann von Staupitz,
- Martin Luther,
- Réforme
Appendices
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